(Rose)
Licht died.
As I woke up, still numb and my head feeling fuzzy, I realised she had come to save our life. And it costed hers.
The huntress carved something shiny out of the corpse's chest.
It's not Blume, but I recognise the kind of thing. It's an artefact beings-like-her can leave behind.
Huntress considered eating it, opening her mouth over it. But she changed her mind in the end, and just threw it inside her bag.
She said she would only use it when there is no alternative.
And just like that, this hardened rose left us. She walked away, on her own way.
Bleue and I, still under shock, slowly stepped away from the blaze and horror.
The clouds of smoke brought rain in the evening and a cold night.
My mind was still a mess, but I held onto Bleue's hands and shoulders to walk.
We then spent a very chilly night under a fallen tree, with our tent damaged during today's escape.
The night slowly passing, we couldn't quite sleep at first, but very slowly, we dozed off.
The sounds of the rain being muffled more and more, until everything was dark and silent to us.
~
I woke up slowly, the extremities of my body feeling cold and damp.
The main part of me that is feeling warm is holding onto Bleue and keeping us close.
My mind feels limpid for the first time in quite some time.
The pain and some shadows died this night.
The rain washed my mind.
I move slowly, waking up Bleue.
I can't really see where we begin and end, but can feel the burst of cold air outside of our blanket.
R - Rise and shine Bleue.
B - Good morning Rose... How do you feel?
R - Better. Clearer. Shall we go?
We snuggle a few more minutes as the sun rises. We finally rise properly thereafter and face the cold.
I feel not rested, but my mind more at peace.
B - Time for us to explore the world a little more.
R - It feels as if it has been a long time since we last discovered something intriguing about the world. I want to explore it with you as we go find Blume.
We finish packing. We're about to go. I hold her hand and tell her.
R - And Bleue, I love you.
She turns alizarin, flushed and surprised. I grin at her surprise and we go on our shining damp path away.
~
Small hairless rats are running away as we cross an empty field still swampy and cold from the previous downpour.
It's all quiet aside for the songs of the wind, so there is nothing left for us but talk as we walk all day in those empty, though nice to look at, sceneries and landscapes.
B - Tell me you love me again.
R - I love you.
B - Now kiss me.
I kiss her cheek. She repeats her demand, pushing her lips forward. I kiss her forehead, annoying her even more. She doesn't like when the table has turned for who's teasing the other.
R - I'll do what you want once we find a nice place for that. Let's just walk for now, okay?
B - That's bold of you, but okay.
We still shiver as we go, the cold becoming unnatural for the season.
Getting lovey-dovey is important, but progressing on our journey as well.
I'm worried for Blume too.
We eat some of the last pieces of dry venison from the doe.
The sun finally gets a little warmer over our heads.
We're crossing railroads from another century. An abandoned gorgeous train is being halfway swallowed by the forest growing along and over it. It's funny to see trees growing on wagons as if they were gardens meant to move around.
Railroads become soft forest paths here and there, as they probably do all over the world.
One day, we will find fossils of our rails, cars, and houses.
We follow a mountain path and road heading southward. We enter a tunnel for cars, carefully. It still stands sturdy, though it is invaded by various species of mushrooms. Also a small stream going through makes an endless number of muddy puddles appear, and glow, reflecting the phosphorescence of some species.
There are doors to some cryptic installations under the mountain as well. The doors melted from very aggressive rust worms, and we took a quick glance behind. We only found unknown and rusting machineries inside these caves. We couldn't figure what they once were and kept going our way.
We entered another valley with a vast ruined city behind. This one has been covered with mud almost as much as the Italian cities of Roma's delta. But here it's because the surrounding mountains collapsed and covered the valley with rubbles. It's less pretty than waterfalls.
I don't recognise the area, so I'm not sure of the broken peaks we see behind the clouds in the distance are ones I tried to cross before.
We walk ahead, alone in the world and unconcerned.
Swamps stretch between hills of rubbles and tips of buildings protruding from the great avalanches and flood that once levelled this area.
Pieces of the ruined city or cities can be seen behind the whole scenery, behind the newly growing woods, under the fields, below the marshes, under the swamps and lakes...
The culture and nature are fusing, the later one dominating the result.
We craft a small floating raft and embark across the swamps.
Our small raft slides slowly atop the uneven waters of the biggest lake. I'm rowing it like a venetian gondola, standing at the back. I'm not really good at it. Bleue is guiding it from the front with a long stick, to take hold onto the protruding buildings and rocks.
The water is mud in some places, and almost transparent in others. We can then see about ten metres below. Our shadow at the bottom of the lake hovers between the protruding cityscape. We see some unbleached white fishes, swimming fast below, following that intriguing shadow we carry as a floating vessel.
We gently sail across this now peaceful but very foreign land.
We reach the slopes of another mountain, and we will continue our way toward the southern sea from there.
~